THE  CHRISTIAN 
RELIGION 

EDWARD  F. WILLIAMS 


BR 

123 

.W54 

1918 


^m^QF  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 


V{AF^  13  1918 


BR  123  .W54  1918 
Williams,  Edward  Franklin, 

1832- 
The  Christian  religion 


K  <r.  I  V-  I 


Wit 


THE    CHRISTIAN 
RELIGION       V    ■' 

An  Appeal  for  Its  Acceptance  ^ 


"tr. 


AR  13  1918 


EDWARD  F.  WILLIAMS 


^. 


Libr.  o-{  r&iiQ^-  +Houc:; 


BOSTON:    THE  GORHAM  PRESS 

TORONTO:  THE  COPP  CLARK  CO.,  LIMITED 


Copyright,  1918,  by  Edward  F.  Williams 


All  Rights  Reserved 


MADE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 


The  Gorham  Press,  Boston,  U.  S.  A. 


PREFACE 

The  pages  that  follow  are  from  the  pen  of  a 
man  who  has  found  comfort  and  strength  in  ac- 
cepting Jesus  Christ  as  his  Saviour  and  friend. 
He  earnestly  desires  that  others  who  have  not  had 
an  experience  like  his  and  especially  that  those 
of  his  acquaintance  who  do  npt  look  to  Christ  as 
their  Saviour,  would  without  prejudice  of  any  sort 
read  anew  and  study  thoroughly  the  record  of  his 
life  and  teachings  as  found  in  the  four  gospels  and 
see  if  his  claims  to  be  the  Son  of  God  are  not  fully 
justified  by  what  is  said  there. 


CONTENTS 

I     The  Problem  of  Creation 9 

II     The  Relation  of  God  to  Man 13 

III  Criticisms  of  Christianity 15 

IV  Essential  Truth  of  The  Bible 20 

V     The  Book  of  the  Jews 23 

VI  Conditions  In  the  New  Testament.  .  .  27 

VII     The  Church  of  the  Middle  Ages 33 

VIII     The  Church  of  To-day 37 

IX     Judging  the  Gospel 43 

X  Our  Place  is  the  One  We  Occupy.  ...  61 

XI     Agnostics  and  Materialists 62 


THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 


THE 
CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

An  Appeal  for  Its  Acceptance 
I.    The  Problem  of  Creation 

A  GREAT  deal  is  said  these  days  about  effici- 
ency. The  idea  of  efficiency  for  one's  self 
and  for  others  is  prominent  in  sociological  and  in 
most  rehgious  writings.  No  question  can  be  more 
important  for  us  than  how  we  can  make  the  best 
use  of  our  faculties,  and  in  what  way  they  can  be 
the  most  harmoniously,  the  most  completely,  and 
the  most  usefully  developed.  This  is  a  question 
we  are  compelled  to  answer.  We  cannot  put  it 
aside  and  be  true  to  our  generation,  or  to  our- 
selves. 

The  world  in  which  we  live  is  full  of  attraction 
for  us  and  full  of  mystery  also.  About  its  real 
constitution,  about  the  nature  and  extent  of  its 
forces,  we  know  comparatively  little.  What  we 
do  know  adds  to  the  amount  we  do  not  know.  We 
realize  that  our  life  here  is  very  brief,  hardly  more 
than  a  dream.  The  wind  passeth  over  it  and  it 
is  gone,  and  the  place  thereof  shall  know  it  no 
more.     For  the  beginning  of  this  life  we  are  not 

9 


10        THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

responsible,  only  for  the  use  we  make  of  it.  Nor 
can  we  prevent  its  coming  to  an  end.  Whence  we 
came,  we  do  not  know.  If,  as  some  have  affirmed, 
from  a  pre-existent  state  we  have  no  memory  of  it. 

If  this  life  is  all,  as  many  others  affirm,  then  it 
not  infrequently  seems  as  if  it  were  hardly  worth 
the  sufferings  and  disappointments  connected  with 
it.  It  is  very  difficult  for  us  to  be  content  with 
the  present  alone — Even  in  this  life  we  are  con- 
stantly looking  forward  to  better  days,  to  more 
lucrative  employment,  to  increased  honors,  to  a 
happier  and  more  satisfied  state  of  mind.  It  is 
only  natural  that  we  think  of  a  life  after  this, 
larger  and  better  than  any  we  have  known  here. 

In  fact,  it  is  well  nigh  impossible  for  us  to  per- 
suade ourselves  that  we  exist  for  this  life  alone, 
that  we  came  into  this  world  by  chance,  are  in  a 
world  which  itself  came  into  being  by  chance,  is 
without  a  plan  and  is  governed  by  laws  which  are 
the  result  of  chance.  Whatever  our  theological 
or  our  scientific  views,  however  indifferent  to  re- 
ligion we  may  be,  we  live  and  act  on  the  principle 
that  the  laws  of  Nature  are  permanent,  can  be 
trusted,  and  must  be  obeyed.  We  approve  these 
laws  and  treat  them  as  if  they  had  an  intelligent 
origin.  That  is,  we,  unconsciously  perhaps,  be- 
Heve  that  the  world  and  the  universe  to  which  it 
belongs,  had  a  beginning  and  are  controlled  by  a 
mind  at  once  intelligent  and  powerful.    The  world 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  CREATION       1 1 

came  Into  existence,  we  think,  because  it  was  creat- 
ed by  a  personal  being  who  had  a  plan  In  creating 
It,  and  In  subjecting  It  to  certain  laws.  We  think 
of  ourselves,  also,  and  of  the  men  and  women  of 
our  generation,  and  of  preceding  generations,  as 
possibly  subject  to  some  higher  law  than  that 
which  prevails  In  matter,  as  If  In  the  Intelligence 
we  possess  and  which  others  exhibit,  there  are 
hints  of  another  kind  of  life  than  that  which  seems 
to  be  determined  by  the  laws  of  matter  only. 

In  other  words,  we  feel  as  If  we  were  connected 
In  some  way  with  a  Creator  by  closer  and  different 
ties  than  those  which  we  perceive  In  either  the 
vegetable  or  the  animal  world.  We  do  not  think 
of  ourselves  as  material,  but  as  Intelligent,  moral, 
spiritual  beings.  For  as  we  cannot  think  of  the 
Creator  of  the  world  as  having  visible  form  or  as 
confined  to  any  definite  locality,  so  we  cannot  think 
of  ourselves  as  Identical  with  the  body  which  bears 
our  name,  but  as  having  a  body  In  which  we  dwell. 
We  are  led  logically  to  think  of  the  Creator  as  a 
spiritual  Being,  and  of  ourselves  as  beings  with  a 
spiritual  nature,  and  we  ask  If  it  be  not  possible 
and  desirable  that  we  come  into  conscious  relations 
with  this  spiritual  Being,  so  that  while  Hving  In  a 
material  realm,  we  may  live  In  a  spiritual  realm 
also !  Thus  we  think  of  life  as  coming  from  a 
Creator  who  is  Spirit,  as  partaking  of  his  life, 
as  existing  apart  from  the  material  things  which 


12         THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

surround  us,  as  superior  to  the  destructive  forces 
which  are  seeking  to  bring  this  life  to  an  end,  as 
lasting  beyond  the  grave.  .  .  .  The  more 
thoughtfully  we  consider  what  we  are,  the  more 
earnestly  we  ask  whence  we  have  come,  why  we 
are  here,  whither  we  are  going.  The  older  we 
grow,  the  wider  our  experience,  the  more  anxious 
many  of  us  are  to  find  satisfactory  answers  to 
questions  which  differentiate  us  altogether  from 
beings  with  a  merely  material  nature.  In  spite  of 
ourselves  we  are  religious.  We  form  a  creed,  a 
theology  of  our  own.  We  are  not  content  till  we 
do.  Why  then  should  we  not  consider,  carefully 
and  without  prejudice,  a  theory  which  explains  our 
relations  to  our  Creator,  to  the  world  in  which  we 
are  now  living,  to  our  fellow  men,  and  which 
gives  answer  to  questions  concerning  our  own  na- 
ture and  our  relation  to  the  future? 


II.    The  Relation  of  God  to  Man 

The  aim  of  every  religion  has  been  to  bring  men 
into  right  relations  with  their  Creator.  From  the 
oldest  historical  records  we  learn  that  the  most 
ignorant  and  the  most  superstitious  races,  as  well 
as  the  more  cultivated,  have  sought  to  come  into 
harmonious  relations  with  a  Deity  in  whom  they 
have  some  degree  of  confidence.  Through  gifts, 
sacrifices,  forms  of  worship,  vows,  personal  ser- 
vice, they  have  sought  to  obtain  favors  from  a 
supreme  being,  invisible  indeed,  but  able  to  bless 
with  his  gifts  or  to  injure  by  withholding  them. 

That  the  Christian  religion  should  aim  to  create 
right  relations  between  man  and  God,  is  what  we 
might  anticipate.  We  are  not  surprised  when  the 
apostle  tells  us  that  Jesus  Christ  came  into  the 
world  to  bring  men  back  to  God.  They  were,  as 
we  are  further  told,  servants  of  sin,  wanderers 
from  their  Father's  house.  Christ  came  to  seek 
and  save  the  lost.  Are  we  among  the  lost?  We 
may  not  feel  that  we  are  sinners,  and  yet  we  can- 
not put  aside  a  feeling  that  we  are  not  quite  sure 
that  we  are  on  the  right  road  to  our  Father's 
house.  Why  not  listen  to  one  who  has  found  the 
way  and  is  ready  to  point  it  out  to  us? 

Jesus  claims  to  have  come  into  the  world  as 

13 


14         THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

a  teacher  sent  from  God.  Can  He  make  good  his 
claims?  Multitudes  think  so.  And  those  who 
thus  think  are  anxious  that  those  of  their  acquaint- 
ance, as  well  as  others,  should  consider  the 
grounds  on  which  their  conclusions  rest.  They  ask 
that  the  four  Gospels  be  read  thoughtfully,  that 
the  statements  there  made,  be  pondered,  that  the 
conditions  upon  which  promises  are  made  be  care- 
fully and  honestly  complied  with,  so  that,  in  their 
own  experience  those  who  read  may  discover  the 
truth  of  the  New  Testament  religion.  They  see 
men  of  pure  character,  of  the  highest  social  and 
civic  standing,  of  rare  intelligence,  in  their  daily 
lives  in  the  home  and  in  the  community,  exhibit- 
ing the  most  noble  and  the  most  amiable  traits, 
and  yet  rejecting,  or  at  least  taking  no  apparent 
interest  in  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ.  They  seem 
to  be  open-minded  men,  free  from  prejudice,  char- 
itable, watching  oftentimes  for  opportunities  to 
express  their  sympathy  with  the  suffering  and  to 
furnish  help  for  the  needy.  .  .  .  Outwardly  they 
seem  to  be  living  as  if  they  loved  God  and  their 
neighbor,  as  if  they  were  not  far  from  the  king- 
dom of  God.  Would  that  they  might  take  the 
step  which  would  bring  them  into  it! 


III.    Criticisms  of  Christianity 

Why  are  they  not  open  followers  of  Christ? 
Some  of  them  are  indifferent  to  the  claims  of  any 
religion.  Their  religion  consists  in  doing  what 
they  think  is  right  and  in  giving  no  thought  as  to 
a  reason  for  their  action.  Some  call  in  question 
the  historical  grounds  upon  which  the  Christian 
religion  rests,  look  upon  Christ  as  a  man,  sincere 
perhaps,  but  mistaken  in  his  estimate  of  his  mis- 
sion. That  others  should  be  mistaken  also  in 
their  estimate  of  him  is,  they  say,  altogether  na- 
tural. Others  assert  that  to  accept  Christ  and 
deny  one's  self  in  this  life  for  the  sake  of  blessed- 
ness hereafter,  is  to  take  a  commercial  view  of 
religion,  is  selfishness  and  ethically  immoral.  The 
excuses  given  for  refusing  to  look  upon  Christ  as 
a  Saviour  and  to  live  as  one  of  his  disciples  are 
of  great  variety,  well  nigh  innumerable.  Is  it 
possible  to  overcome  them?  We  believe  it  is,  but 
only  if  those  who  give  them  are  willing  to  consider 
with  absolute  fairness  the  claims  which  the  Chris- 
tian religion  makes  upon  every  intelligent  per- 
son. .  .  . 

We  are  willing  to  admit  that  in  the  lives  of 
many  sincere  Christians,  as  in  the  lives  of  those 
who  call  themselves  Christians,  there  are  good 
reasons  for  not  a  few  of  the  criticisms  that  reach 

15 


1 6         THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

our  ears.  Not  all  the  representatives  of  Christ 
are  worthy  the  position  they  hold.  Not  all  who 
honestly  seek  to  serve  Him  are  without  fault. 
The  Christian  ideal  is  very  high.  Be  ye  perfect  as 
your  Father  in  Heaven.  Who  among  us  dare 
claim  to  have  reached  that  ideal?  Then,  too, 
statements  are  made,  as  if  sanctioned  by  the  Mas- 
ter, as  to  the  nature  and  requirements  of  the 
Gospel  which  are  without  New  Testament  au- 
thority. There  are  believers  who  in  spite  of  their 
faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  still  breathe  the  atmos- 
phere of  the  Old  Testament,  who  in  their  thought 
of  the  laws  of  Moses,  and  their  efforts  to  meet  the 
demand  for  form  and  ceremony,  have  deprived 
themselves  of  the  freedom  and  peace  which  the 
Gospel  gives.  Let  not  the  nature  of  the  Gospel 
be  judged  by  such  lives  as  these,  or  indeed  from 
any  human  representation  of  it. 

By  some,  the  Bible  is  rejected  because,  if  read 
as  a  book  of  science  which  it  certainly  is  not  and 
was  not  intended  to  be,  it  contradicts  laws  of  Na- 
ture which  observation  and  experience  prove  to  be 
true.  As  a  book  of  ethics,  we  are  told  its  prin- 
ciples cannot  be  accepted,  and  we  are  reminded  of 
commands  and  deeds  recorded  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment from  which  our  moral  sense  recoils.  We 
grant  that  the  standards  of  duty  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment are  not  such  as  we  always  can  approve,  or  as 
are  found  in  the  New  Testament.     Is  this  sur- 


CRITICISMS  OF  CHRISTIANITY     17 

prising?  Why  should  the  advocates  of  the  doc- 
trine of  evolution,  as  most  of  these  critics  are, 
overlook  the  fact  that  there  has  been  an  advance 
in  the  domain  of  morals  and  religion,  no  less  truly 
than  in  the  realm  of  nature,  an  advance  which 
Christians  gratefully  recognize,  an  advance  which 
may  be  traced  from  the  days  of  the  Decalogue  to 
those  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount?  Is  it  fair  to 
judge  the  religion  of  Jesus  and  that  of  the  apostles 
by  the  opinions  and  conduct  of  patriarchs  and  law- 
givers, by  the  beginnings  of  a  religion  rather  than 
by  its  aim  and  its  latest  teachings? 

How  is  it  that  so  many  seem  to  forget  that 
Christianity  is  a  living  religion,  a  life  from  God 
imparted  to  a  human  soul,  which  appropriates  to 
itself  day  by  day  whatever  is  truest  and  best  in 
moral  conduct  and  philosophical  thought?  The 
disciple  of  Christ  in  the  twentieth  century  ought  to 
have  a  broader  outlook  on  the  moral  and  spiritual 
needs  of  mankind  than  the  wisest  of  his  followers 
in  Palestine  or  within  three  hundred  years  of  the 
crucifixion  or  in  the  Middle  Ages  or  in  the  time 
of  the  Reformation  or  even  in  the  last  century. 
The  increase  in  knowledge  in  various  fields  has 
been  by  leaps  and  bounds.  The  believer  of  to-day 
ought  to  understand  Christ  and  the  nature  of  his 
teachings  better  than  the  believer  in  any  past  era. 
He  ought  to  be  more  charitable  and  tolerant  in  his 
judgments  of  religious  thought,  to  have  a  saner 


1 8         THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

and  juster  view  of  the  meaning  of  the  great  events 
in  human  history  than  those  who  have  preceded 
him.  It  is  the  Christian  religion  of  the  present 
time  which  we  wish  the  unbelievers  of  our  day  to 
consider,  the  claims  which  Christ  makes  for  him- 
self in  his  Gospels,  the  claims  which  Christian  ex- 
perience reports  as  uplifting  and  purifying,  the 
claims  of  a  faith  which  appreciates  and  accepts  all 
that  Is  true  in  science,  beautiful  in  art,  noble  in  ac- 
tion or  conductive  to  human  welfare,  but  which 
finds  its  nourishment  and  strength  in  clinging  to 
Jesus  as  one  sent  from  God. 

A  very  great  deal  of  the  criticism  which 
meets  us  now,  and  upon  which  so  many  seem  to 
base  their  unbelief  In  Christ  may  be  set  aside  at 
once  as  resting  on  inadequate  and  false  views  of 
the  nature  and  demands  of  his  gospel.  It  Is  not 
the  low  standards  of  morals  which  seem  to  have 
prevailed  in  the  earlier  periods  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment times,  the  peculiar  or  far-fetched  interpreta- 
tions of  certain  passages  in  the  New  Testament, 
the  opinions  of  men  who  have  justified  on  the 
ground  of  Christian  fidelity  the  horrors  and  cruel- 
ties of  religious  wars,  which  genuine  believers  wish 
their  fellow-men  to  accept.  What  they  desire  for 
themselves  and  for  others  is  that  the  real  Christ 
be  known  and  trusted.  It  is  to  Him  that  they  ask 
their  fellow-men  to  direct  their  thought. 

They  ask  the  Intelligent  people  of  to-day  to 


CRITICISMS  OF  CHRISTIANITY     19 

study  without  prejudice  the  character  and  claims 
of  Christ  as  He  is  presented  in  the  Gospels,  to 
consider  his  theory  of  morals,  his  ideals  of  Hfe,  his 
standards  of  duty,  his  promises  for  the  future. 
They  make  no  appeal  for  any  particular  church, 
historical  or  national,  for  any  denomination  or  re- 
ligious sect,  for  any  religious  leader  however  gift- 
ed or  devoted  he  may  seem  to  be  or  to  have  been, 
or  how  many  followers  he  may  have  won.  What 
they  ask  is  that  the  four  Gospels  be  read  in  the 
light  of  present  day  knowledge,  that  the  genuine 
words  of  Jesus  be  carefully  studied,  that  the  in- 
fluence of  those  words  upon  the  lives  of  the  men 
who  heard  them  and  upon  the  lives  of  men  to 
whom  they  have  been  repeated  generation  after 
generation  be  considered,  and  that  the  question  be 
put  to  their  best  judgment  whether  a  religion 
whose  influence  has  been  for  good  for  so  long  a 
time  and  among  so  many  different  people  can  rest 
on  a  fictitious  foundation?  Let  reason  as  well  as 
patience  have  her  perfect  work  and  there  need  be 
no  fear  for  the  result.  It  cannot  be  repeated  too 
often  that  the  thoughtful  believer  of  to-day,  the 
man  who  believes  because  his  personal  experience 
bears  witness  to  the  reasonableness  of  his  faith,  is 
anxious  that  others,  and  especially  the  men  whose 
esteem  and  friendship  he  prizes  so  highly,  should 
find  for  themselves  a  treasure  he  has  found  preci- 
ous. 


IV.    The  Essential  Truth  of  the  Bible 

Let  the  critics  be  heard  In  all  they  have  to  say. 
Smile  at  the  ignorance  and  stupidity  with  which 
many  present  the  claims  of  the  gospel,  reject  as 
unworthy  of  confidence  the  blindness  and  folly  of 
those  who  aver  that  a  revelation  from  above  has 
been  vouchsafed  to  them,  make  due  allowance  for 
whatever  influence  the  time  or  environment  may 
have  had  on  the  form  in  which  the  truth  we  are 
asked  to  accept  has  been  given  to  the  world,  criti- 
cize freely  whatever  weakness  or  frailty  or  ill- 
doing  can  be  discovered  in  the  character  or  con- 
duct of  Christians.  True  we  look  to  them  as  ex- 
amples of  the  kind  of  lives  those  who  profess  to 
be  disciples  of  Christ  ought  to  lead. 

But  do  not  forget  that  what  they  are,  is  not  the 
truth  we  are  asked  to  accept.  The  truth  is  Christ 
himself.  "I  am  the  way,  the  truth  and  the  life. 
No  man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by  Me."  His 
teachings  alone  are  to  be  taken  as  the  foundation 
of  our  religious  belief.  The  intelligent  believer  of 
our  time  does  not  ask  any  one  to  do  violence  to  an 
enlightened  judgment,  to  disregard  the  verdicts 
of  true  scholarship,  to  overlook  and  condemn  the 
good  there  is  in  the  world  and  among  unbelievers: 
he  asks  for  fair  consideration  of  the  claims  of  the 

20 


ESSENTIAL  TRUTH  OF  THE  BIBLE  2 1 

faith  which  rests  on  Jesus  Christ  as  Its  basis. 
Scholarship,  as  he  knows,  has  shown  the  gradual 
growth  of  the  Old  Testament,  has  detected  and 
pointed  out  the  work  of  different  authors  in  books 
that  are  ascribed  to  a  single  author,  has  given  a 
late  date  to  books  which  were  formerly  affirmed  to 
have  been  written  much  earlier.  Christian  schol- 
ars do  not  define  Inspiration  In  the  old  terms,  or 
deny  that  God  raises  up  leaders  of  thought  and 
action  at  different  times  and  In  different  countries 
for  special  purposes  whose  words  may  be  worth 
careful  comparison  with  those  found  in  the  Scrip- 
tures. They  doubt  if  an  audible  voice  was  heard 
with  every  "Thus  saith  the  Lord"  which  meets 
us  in  the  Old  Testament,  nor  are  they  willing  to 
assert  that  historical  or  scientific  errors  are  entire- 
ly absent  from  the  books  that  compose  it. 

Christian  scholarship  looks  upon  these  old  Jew- 
ish books,  which  the  Council  of  Jamnia  A.  D.  90 
accepted  as  sacred,  as  forming  a  book  of  religion 
of  exceedingly  great  value.  They  point  to  the  fact 
that  it  traces  the  religion  of  a  peculiar  people 
from  rude  beginnings  through  a  long  period  of 
time.  They  emphasize  the  human  element  in  its 
formation  and  are  not  shocked  by  the  assertion 
that  these  books  were  written  as  other  books  are 
written,  and  are  to  be  criticized  as  other  writings 
of  their  time  are  criticized.  But  they  believe  that 
if  read  in  the  light  of  present  knowledge,  these 


22         THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

writings  will  not  only  prove  to  be  fascinating  as 
literature,  but  illuminating  and  inspiring  for  re- 
ligion. 


V.    The  Book  of  the  Jews 

The  Bible  claims  to  be  a  truthful  record  of  the 
religious  life  and  belief  of  a  small  nation  whose 
God  was  wiser,  purer,  more  powerful  than  any 
the  gods  of  the  surrounding  nations,  the  God 
of  a  nation  which  looked  upon  itself  as  an  object 
of  his  special  thought  and  favor.  It  was  little  that 
the  people  saw  at  the  beginning  of  their  history. 
Their  God  as  they  thought  of  Him  was  moved  as 
by  human  passions,  was  jealous  of  neglect,  cruel 
to  the  enemies  of  his  people,  did  not  seem  to  care 
for  the  welfare  of  the  major  part  of  mankind.  It 
is  not  strange  if  we  take  facts  into  consideration 
that  it  should  have  been  so.  How  could  it  have 
been  otherwise?  Is  it  surprising  that  prominent 
men,  priests,  judges,  kings  should  share  in  the 
thought  of  the  people,  were  under  the  Influence  of 
the  spirit  of  the  times,  were  selfish,  cruel,  and  full 
of  religious  bigotry,  not  infrequently  indifferent  to 
the  demands  of  justice  or  morality? 

Is  it  surprising  that  the  prophets  should  meet 
with  serious  and  constant  opposition  on  the  part  of 
the  representatives  of  the  national  religion  In  their 
efforts  to  teach  a  higher  morality  than  had  usually 
been  observed  and  speak  of  God  as  a  God  of 
righteousness?     Yet,  admitting  the  Imperfection 

23 


24        THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

of  the  authors  of  the  various  books  of  the  Old 
Testament,  especially  of  those  which  are  called 
historical,  its  careful  reading  will  bring  before 
our  minds  many  a  noble  thought,  many  a  heroic 
deed  of  self-sacrifice,  many  a  command  which  if 
obeyed  will  aid  in  forming  a  righteous  character. 
The  reading  of  the  story  of  the  servitude  in  Egypt, 
of  the  deliverance  therefrom,  of  the  life  in  the 
desert,  of  the  giving  of  the  commandments,  of  the 
history  of  the  beginnings  of  the  worship  of  a 
spiritual  Being,  of  the  aspirations  of  the  authors 
of  many  of  the  Psalms,  of  the  warnings  of  the 
prophets  combined  with  their  hopefulness,  can- 
not fail  to  be  helpful  to  those  who  read  sympathe- 
tically and  are  willing  to  put  themselves  back  in 
the  place  of  those  to  whom  the  story  first  came. 
The  experiences  which  are  related  in  the  Old 
Testament  prepare  us  for  those  which  meet  us  in 
the  New  Testament.  Here  we  are  in  another  at- 
mosphere, purer,  more  invigorating,  an  atmos- 
phere which  stimulates  us  to  right  thinking  and 
right  doing.  Here  we  discover  that  the  chosen 
people  and  the  true  seed  of  Abraham  are  those 
who  love  God  supremely  and  their  neighbor  as 
themselves.  That  here  and  there  even  in  the 
New  Testament  writers,  a  trace  of  the  old  Jewish 
spirit  is  discernable,  is  not  denied.  That  its  writ- 
ers were  men  of  their  day  is  evident.  Apart  from 
their  morality  and  their  spirituality,  from  the  faith 


THE  BOOK  OF  THE  JEWS  25 

they  cherished  in  one  whom  they  were  worshipping 
as  the  Son  of  God,  from  their  confident  expecta- 
tion of  a  future  life,  they  were  in  no  wise  unlike 
other  men  of  the  class  to  which  they  belonged. 
Yet  their  spirit  is  that  of  Him  who  came  into  the 
world  to  save  sinners,  to  meet  them  in  their  daily 
lives  and  furnish  them  the  aid  and  encouragement 
they  needed.  .  .  .  Did  it  matter  if  to  a  Gentile,  a 
Christian  who  had  once  been  a  Jew  spake  with  a 
Hebrew  accent,  if  he  insisted  that  in  his  Saviour 
he  had  found  the  Messiah  long  promised  to  his 
people? 

So  far  as  we  know,  the  original  disciples  were 
Jews  by  birth  and  education.  They  had  lived 
among  Jewish  people.  They  had  known  very  lit- 
tle of  any  other  people.  Whatever  they  did  or 
said  would  indicate  their  nationality.  That  they 
clung  to  Jewish  forms  of  worship,  used  images 
and  illustrations  familiar  to  Jewish  thought  in 
their  ministry  and  in  their  writings,  may  be  ac- 
cepted as  a  matter  of  course.  Paul  was  a  Jew 
prior  to  his  conversion  and  he  never  lost  his  love 
for  his  brethren  after  the  flesh,  or  ceased  to  labor 
and  pray  that  they,  like  himself,  might  receive 
Jesus  as  the  Messiah  of  promise.  That  Paul  was 
a  genuine  man,  a  man  to  be  trusted,  a  man  who 
preached  what  he  believed  to  be  true,  a  man  who 
had  proved  the  truth  of  his  teachings  in  his  own 
experience  before  presenting  them  to  others,  no 


26         THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

one  who  peruses  his  letters  or  traces  the  history  of 
his  hfe  subsequent  to  his  conversion  can  doubt. 
Testimony  from  a  man  like  this  is  not  to  be  lightly 
rejected. 

What  wonder  if  in  his  writings,  composed  often 
in  haste  and  under  the  pressure  of  ardent  feehng, 
words  and  arguments  show  traces  of  a  training 
which  preceded  his  Christian  experience?  Is  the 
book  of  Hebrews,  with  its  Christian  spirit  and 
aim,  less  valuable  because  of  the  use  it  makes  of 
the  old  Jewish  Scriptures?  Need  it  surprise  us 
that  doctrines  current  among  devout  Jews, 
apocalytic  and  peculiar  to  their  race,  should  be 
woven  into  the  thought  of  the  New  Testament 
writers?  These  writers,  like  the  apostles,  were 
men  like  ourselves.  They  were  dull  and  slow  of 
hearing.  They  did  not  easily  see  truth  in  its  full 
perspective.  Nor  is  our  spiritual  vision  entirely 
clear.  Yet  this  early  testimony  to  the  ministry  of 
Jesus  has  produced  marvelous  results. 


VI.    Conditions  in  the  New  Testament 

It  is  difficult  for  us  to  picture  to  ourselves  the 
conditions  of  life  when  the  apostles  began  their 
ministry.  The  world,  at  any  rate  the  Roman 
world,  was  at  peace.  The  people  as  a  rule  were 
prosperous.  The  burdens  which  the  government 
imposed  were  not  grievous.  .  .  .  Within  certain 
limits  its  subjects  were  free  to  think  and  act  as  they 
pleased.  Only  in  test  cases  were  they  required  to 
pay  homage,  as  a  token  of  loyalty,  to  the  Emper- 
or. But  with  all  these  outward  marks  of  pros- 
perity there  was  a  vast  deal  of  inward  corruption. 
Divorce  was  common.  Immorality  was  common 
and  provoked  little  criticism.  In  the  great  cities 
the  poor  had  become  slaves  and  their  condition 
was  anything  but  fortunate.  True  there  were  freed 
men  who  obtained  great  power,  but  they  did  little 
to  improve  the  condition  of  those  among  whom 
they  had  served  as  slaves.  The  distinction  be- 
tween classes  was  never  sharper.  There  were  the 
very  rich  and  the  very  poor  .  .  .  those  who  gave 
themselves  up  to  every  kind  of  pleasure  and  those 
who  did  not  know  from  day  to  day  where  to  find 
their  bread.  To  prevent  outbreaks  among  the 
poor,  corn  was  distributed  in  Rome  at  regular 
times   and  in   specified   quantities.      Games   were 

27 


28         THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

established  for  the  delight  of  the  thousands  who 
found  their  sole  amusement  in  witnessing  them. 
Quiet  as  everything  appeared  to  be  on  the  surface, 
even  provincial  governors  were  not  always  free 
from  anxiety.  They  were  well  satisfied  to  have 
things  remain  as  they  were.  They  did  not  wel- 
come new  thought  or  any  change  in  the  manner  of 
life  which  could  suggest  in  the  least  the  worth  of  a 
human  soul. 

This  was  the  fullness  of  time  when  Christ  came, 
when  after  his  death  and  resurrection  his  follow- 
ers went  out  into  the  world  with  a  gospel  of  Hfe 
and  peace.  They  addressed  men  as  if  each  one 
of  them  were  a  child  of  God  with  an  immortal 
destiny,  as  if  in  the  sight  of  God,  the  God  whom 
they  trusted  and  were  trying  to  serve,  all  were 
equal,  as  if  in  his  presence  and  at  his  judgment- 
bar  the  rich  and  powerful  would  have  no  prefer- 
ence over  the  poor  and  weak.  For  men  of  learn- 
ing, for  those  who  had  won  literary  fame,  for  the 
philosophers  and  scientists  of  that  day,  for  men 
high  in  favor  with  the  PZmperor,  or  occupying  an 
important  political  position  anywhere  in  the  em- 
pire, the  preaching  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  of  Naz- 
areth would  have  little  interest.  To  its  warnings 
and  promises  they  would  turn  a  deaf  ear.  And 
yet  a  Herod,  listened  to  a  John  the  Baptist,  and 
often  sent  for  him  that  he  might  hear  him  in 
private.    Felix  trembled  at  the  reasonings  of  Paul, 


CONDITIONS  IN  NEW  TESTAMENT  29 

and  Festus  could  find  no  fault  in  him.  A  cen- 
turion summoned  Peter  as  a  herald  of  good  news 
for  himself  arid  his  household,  and  the  apostle  to 
the  Gentiles  had  no  difficulty  in  obtaining  a  hear- 
ing among  the  officers  and  soldiers  of  the  army 
even  at  Rome. 

It  is  only  necessary  to  read  the  New  Testament 
with  care  to  see  the  success  which  everywhere  at- 
tended or  followed  the  preaching  of  the  gospel. 
Recall  the  number  of  conversions  which  occurred 
within  a  few  weeks  of  the  Resurrection.  Follow 
the  results  of  the  persecution  and  martyrdom  of 
Stephen  when  the  apostles  went  everywhere  telling 
the  story  of  the  Saviour  who  had  died  for  them 
and  had  risen  from  the  dead.  Study  carefully  the 
history  of  Paul.  Mark  the  change  in  his  character 
and  in  his  spirit  and  aims  after  his  experience  on 
the  way  to  Damascus.  Accompany  him  on  his 
visits  to  Jerusalem,  to  his  home  in  Tarsus,  to  his 
year's  service  with  Barnabus  at  Antioch,  go  with 
him  on  his  missionary  journeys  in  Asia  Minor,  in 
Europe,  on  his  way  as  a  prisoner  to  Rome.  Sit 
by  his  side  as  he  writes  his  letters,  Hsten  to  him  as 
he  preaches,  as  he  talks  with  the  men  whom  he 
meets  casually,  observe  how  he  emphasizes  the 
fact  that  the  Jesus  whom  he  had  persecuted  is  the 
Messiah  for  whom  the  Jews  had  long  looked,  the 
Saviour  who  had  come  into  the  world  with  the  gift 
of  eternal  life  for  those  who  would  receive  it. 


30         THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

So  confident  was  he  of  the  truth  of  his  message 
that  he  shrank  from  no  hardships  or  dangers 
which  stood  in  the  way  of  dehvering  it. 

The  effect  of  that  gospel  on  many  of  those  who 
heard  it  should  not  be  overlooked.  Recall  the 
names  of  those  who  were  associated  with  Paul  in 
his  labors,  men  like  Barnabas,  Timothy,  Silas,  of 
noble  women  not  a  few,  of  the  churches  called  into 
existence,  through  his  and  their  agency,  perhaps 
the  seven  in  Asia  Minor,  at  any  rate  the  church  at 
Philippi,  one  at  Thessalonica,  another  at  Corinth, 
those  at  Lystra  and  Derbe  and  Iconium,  churches 
whose  influence  was  felt  for  centuries  and  always 
for  good.  From  Paul  men  heard  that  they  were 
sinners,  in  need  of  forgiveness,  and  that  the  power 
to  break  away  from  sin  and  lead  a  righteous  life 
could  come  from  God  alone.  Were  the  apostles 
fanatics?  Had  their  preaching  no  foundation 
upon  which  to  rest?  Was  the  change  wrought  in 
the  character  and  conduct  of  men  through  the 
hearing  of  the  Gospel  and  at  the  outcome  of  faith 
in  its  author  unreal?  And  yet  the  [Christian 
thought  and  enthusiasm  of  centuries  was  the  out- 
come .  .  .  the  beginning  of  Institutions  and  so- 
cieties from  which  a  new  civilization  arose. 

We  know  that  intense  earnestness  sometimes 
may  be  mistaken  for  fanaticism.  A  half-educated 
Christian  may  proclaim  doctrines,  which  while 
they  convey  great  truths  to  his  mind,  and  to  other 


CONDITIONS  IN  NEW  TESTAMENT  31 

minds  like  his,  contain  errors  which  a  disciplined 
mind  cannot  fail  to  perceive  and  to  reject.  The 
gospel  as  it  comes  to  us  directly  from  the  New 
Testament  is  expressed  in  language  which  to  some 
minds  conveys  little  of  its  true  meaning.  It  is  one 
of  the  excellencies  of  the  gospel  that  it  comes  to 
every  one  in  his  own  language,  in  those  terms,  and 
In  that  grade  of  thought  which  he  can  appreciate. 
So  it  was  at  the  first.  The  people  heard  the  Lord 
gladly.  He  spake  as  one  having  authority  and 
not  as  the  scribes,  with  the  uncertainty  and  in- 
decision of  mere  interpretators. 

If  thousands  in  Jerusalem  very  soon  after  the 
resurrection  believed,  there  were  among  them,  we 
are  told,  a  great  number  of  priests,  doubtless  rep- 
resentatives of  the  best  educated  people  in  the 
city.  The  associates  and  helpers  of  Paul  were 
evidently  men  and  women  of  the  best  class  In  so- 
ciety. The  churches  they  founded  were  left  in 
the  care  of  their  members.  Among  these  mem- 
bers, self-governing  as  these  churches  were,  there 
must  have  been  persons  fitted  to  plan  and  direct 
their  work.  A  church  in  a  heathen  city  like  An- 
tloch  or  Pisidia  or  Derbe  or  Iconlum  or  In  Galatia, 
a  church  In  any  Roman  city,  occupied  a  place  of 
distinction.  It  stood  for  new  religious  doctrines, 
for  an  entirely  new  standard  of  life.  Such  an  or- 
ganization would  be  criticized  severely.  Of  this 
fact  no  one  was  more  truly  conscious  than  Paul. 


32         THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

Hence  his  subsequent  visits  to  the  churches.  Hence 
the  letters  to  them  from  which  succeeding  ages 
have  profited.  That  the  bishops  and  deacons  which 
were  ordained  out  of  the  converts,  none  of  whom 
could  have  been  of  long  standing,  were  men  of 
ability,  if  not  always  men  of  wealth  and  culture,  is 
evident.  Ignorant  and  weak-minded  men  could 
not  have  filled  the  positions  these  men  held.  The 
work  which  many  of  these  churches  accomplished 
long  after  the  apostle's  death  is  testimony  to  the 
wisdom  with  which  it  was  conducted. 


VII.    The  Church  of  the  Middle  Ages 

We  are  wont  to  think  of  the  church  of  the 
Middle  Ages  as  corrupt  and  worldly,  as  lacking 
almost  entirely  the  graces  of  character  and  the 
sympathy  with  the  poor  which  we  associate  with 
the  churches  of  our  time.  Three  things  the  medi- 
aeval church  did.  It  preserved  in  its  monasteries 
and  among  its  priests  and  monks  the  learning  of 
previous  generations.  Greek,  Roman,  and  to 
some  extent  Oriental  thought  and  literature  were 
kept  alive  in  these  religious  centers.  Out  of  them 
came  the  impulse  from  which  the  universities  of 
Paris,  Italy,  and  England  arose.  In  them  were 
gathered  and  preserved  the  libraries  of  the  time. 
Here  precious  manuscripts  carefully  were  copied 
and  treasured. 

To  these  monasteries  the  poor  came  as  to  the 
only  place  where  relief  could  be  found  for  their 
sufferings.  .  .  .  These  monasteries  fed  the  poor, 
clothed  the  naked,  and  sent  out  visitors  to  the  sick 
and  in  prison.  In  the  nunneries  were  women  who 
were  even  more  serviceable  to  the  needy  than 
priests  or  monks. 

Naturally  enough,  hospitals  were  connected 
with  these  religious  homes  and  men  and  women 
were  trained  in  them  through  experience  as  well 

33 


34         THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

as  by  careful  study,  in  medicine  and  surgery.  If 
methods  were  crude  and  imperfect,  they  were  the 
best  that  could  be  followed.  They  prepared  the 
way  for  methods  in  our  day  which  are  prolonging 
life  by  many  years.  But  we  have  no  right  to  sup- 
pose that  the  nursing  in  the  hospitals  of  the  Mid- 
dle Ages  was  less  sympathetic  or  Christian  than 
that  of  our  own  time.  In  those  quiet  institutions, 
notwithstanding  imperfections,  genuine  piety  was 
found. 

Neither  the  Roman  nor  the  Greek  Church,  full 
of  faults  in  doctrine  and  life  as  many  of  their 
members  were,  were  without  examples  of  true 
Christian  consecration.  There  were  in  them  men 
and  women  who  gave  up  everything  that  they 
might  serve  their  fellow  men.  Their  consecra- 
tion assumed  different  forms.  It  was  seen  in  the 
zeal  of  the  evangelist,  the  research  of  the  scholar, 
the  self-denial  of  the  missionary.  Piety  was  kept 
alive  and  nourished  by  the  service  of  scores  and 
hundreds  of  men  and  women  who  withdrew  from 
the  world,  that  through  their  withdrawal  from  it, 
they  might  the  better  serve  it. 

Of  the  missionary  history  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
apart  from  the  reports  made  to  Rome,  we  have  no 
full  and  accurate  knowledge.  We  know  that  in 
every  generation  the  Church  of  Rome  has  sought 
to  give  the  Gospel  as  she  has  understood  it,  to  the 
remotest  parts  of  the  world.    The  Crusades  were 


THE  CHURCH  OF  MIDDLE  AGES    35 

in  a  way  missionary  undertakings.  The  infidel  was 
to  be  overthrown  that  the  believer  might  reign. 
Foolish  disputes  there  were  over  trivial  points  of 
doctrine;  men  prominent  in  the  councils  of  the 
Church  were  notorious  for  their  vicious  lives;  the 
desire  for  wealth  and  political  power  was  appar- 
ent; the  words  of  Dante  in  condemnation  of  the 
Church  are  not  too  strong,  and  yet  many  a  saint 
lived  in  its  atmosphere  and  was  nourished  by  its 
teachings.  He  who  would  understand  the  position 
and  work  of  the  Church  in  either  its  Western  or 
its  Eastern  division  must  carry  himself  back  in  his 
imagination  to  the  centuries  in  which  they  were  the 
sources  of  the  best  civic  and  religious  Hfe  of  the 
time. 

Prior  to  the  Reformation,  the  Western  Church 
represented  the  best  thought  of  the  era.  It  was 
the  home  of  earnest  and  gifted  men.  It  trained 
the  men  who  laid  the  foundations  of  the  great 
public  schools  of  western  Europe  and  of  the  uni- 
versities of  France,  Italy,  and  England.  In  it 
were  educated  such  men  as  Martin  Luther, 
Zwingle,  Reuchlin,  Erasmus,  Melanthon,  and 
scores  of  others,  who  loved  and  served  their  gen- 
eration. Luther  did  not  at  first  intend  to  break 
with  the  Church.  He  sought  to  free  it  from  su- 
persitions  and  errors,  in  the  hope  that  its  life 
would  deepen  and  be  enriched  through  a  sincere 
faith  in  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Saviour  of  men.     It 


36         THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

was  a  very  simple  gospel  which  he  sought  to 
preach;  that  men  were  sinners  and  could  be  justi- 
fied by  faith  alone.  What  his  preaching  of  the 
gospel,  as  he  interpreted  it,  accomplished,  appears 
not  only  in  the  history  of  the  reformed  churches 
and  the  history  of  protestantism  throughout  the 
world,  but  in  the  new  and  purer  life  which  sprang 
up  in  the  mother  church.  For  the  work  of  Luther 
and  his  associates  wrought  a  very  great  change  in 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  both  in  its  doctrines 
and  in  the  spiritual  life  of  many  of  its  members. 


VIII.    The  Church  of  To-day 

But  objections  are  to  the  church  of  to-day, 
Protestant  as  well  as  Catholic.  It  is  granted  that 
both  churches  have  been  useful,  have  done  not  a 
little  towards  making  this  world  a  better  world  in 
which  to  live,  that  it  has  suggested  and  ordinarily 
put  into  operation  nearly  all  the  benevolent  agen- 
cies in  which  we  take  pride.  Few  people,  how- 
ever, have  any  adequate  knowledge  of  the  char- 
acter and  extent  of  the  missionary  work  of  the 
church  during  the  past  and  the  present  genera- 
tion. Many,  while  admitting,  or  at  least  not  ex- 
actly denying  all  this,  yet  speak  of  the  church  and 
its  ministers  as  the  defenders  of  outworn  dogmas, 
and  without  sympathy  with  present  day  needs. 

Few  of  those  who  make  the  charge  undertake 
to  prove  the  truth  of  it.  That  might  be  somewhat 
difficult.  On  what  foundation  does  it  rest?  Where 
is  the  new  thought  of  which  non-believers  so  often 
speak,  more  carefully  studied,  and,  if  found  to  be 
true,  more  readily  received  than  in  our  Christian 
colleges  and  seminaries?  Where  are  the  men 
found  who  are  mastering  the  thought  of  the  time 
and  encouraging  with  their  words  and  their  money 
those  who  in  well  nigh  innumerable  directions  are 
searching  for  the  truth,  if  not  in  or  closely  con- 
nected with  the  church?     Who  are  the  men  who 

37 


38         THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

have  been  uncovering  the  treasures  of  Egypt, 
Palestine,  the  ruins  in  Mesopotamia? 

They  are  Christian  men  chiefly.  The  classical 
scholars  who  care  for  nothing  so  much  as  some- 
thing in  Greece  or  Italy  that  will  throw  new  light 
on  some  favorite  author,  are  for  the  most  part 
supporters  of  the  Christian  Church.  The  excep- 
tions are  comparatively  few  in  number.  To  whom 
are  we  indebted  for  the  fresh  interest  in  Biblical 
study  and  the  new  thought  which  is  following  it 
if  it  be  not  to  Christian  scholars?  They  are  the 
men  who  are  welcoming  the  discoveries  which  are 
adding  to  our  knowledge  of  ancient  times,  are 
modifying  our  views  in  many  directions,  and  who 
shrink  from  no  conclusions  supported  by  facts. 
They  are  lovers  of  truth.  That  they  will  follow, 
let  it  lead  whithersoever  it  may. 

It  is  the  Church  itself,  the  protestant  branch  of 
it,  that  sustains  and  rejoices  in  the  new  learning. 
It  cares  for  the  truth  and  the  truth  alone.  But 
it  cannot  be  asked  to  give  up  the  old  for  the  new, 
simply  because  it  is  new.  If  it  accepts  the  new  it 
must  be  because  the  new  is  true.  If  this  undermines 
some  old  doctrine  very  dear  to  us,  we  let  It  go 
without  a  moment's  hesitation.  A  religion  without 
a  basis  of  fact  on  which  to  rest  Is  worthless.  The 
Christian  Church  of  our  day  was  never  more  con- 
fident than  now  that  Its  foundations  are  secure  and 
immovable.      Hence   its   promotion  of   research, 


THE  CHURCH  OF  TO-DAY         39    % 

the  encouragement  It  gives  to  criticism,  the  readi- 
ness with  which  whatever  seems  to  be  true  is  ac- 
cepted and  made  a  part  of  its  behef.  But  it  in- 
sists that  the  new  be  proved  to  be  true  before  it  is 
wiUing  to  put  it  in  place  of  former  belief.  This 
is  the  attitude  of  the  Church.  Its  members  desire 
their  friends  to  unite  with  them  in  its  service  for 
mankind  because  they  find  in  it  the  truth  which 
satisfies  the  intellect,  purifies  the  heart,  stimulates 
to  self-denial,  forms  moral  character,  creates  sym- 
pathy with  suffering  and  need  the  world  over,  and 
because  they  find  in  it  the  men  whose  greatest 
happiness  consists  in  striving  to  diminish  pain, 
mental,  or  physical,  and  by  gifts  of  money  or  per- 
sonal service  to  supply  every  form  of  human  need. 
It  is  to  Christian  men  and  women  that  the  world 
is  indebted  for  whatever  is  best  in  its  thought  or 
its  life.  And  yet  some  intelligent  people  among 
us  are  rejecting  the  gospel  as  untrue  or  as  un- 
necessary, as  making  no  appeal  to  them,  inasmuch 
as  neither  in  its  teachings  nor  in  its  aims  does  it 
interest  them.  They  turn  away  from  it  as  having 
no  value  in  itself,  as  something  which  appeals 
neither  to  their  physical  nor  to  their  moral  needs. 
A  large  number  are  indifferent  to  the  gospel,  who 
in  reality  know  very  little  about  it.  To  them  the 
Bible  is  a  sealed  book — they  do  not  read  it.  They 
know  that  there  are  Christian  churches.  Christian 
schools   and  colleges,   that  many  hospitals  have 


i  40         THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

rather  an  intimate  relation  with  Christian  people, 
that  these  same  people  have  established  hospitals 
in  foreign  lands  as  a  part  of  their  Christian  work, 
but  precisely  what  this  foreign  work  is,  or  how 
far  it  extends  or  what  it  has  accomplished,  they 
do  not  know  and  are  taking  no  pains  to  ascertain. 
How  can  intelligent  people  excuse  themselves 
for  this  Ignorance,  or  for  the  attitude  which  ac- 
companies it?  Churches  are  found  In  nearly  every 
village  In  the  United  States  and  western  Europe. 
Persons  connected  with  these  churches  have  In 
general  taken  the  lead  in  support  of  institutions  of 
benevolence,  the  circulation  of  good  literature,  the 
framing,  passage,  and  execution  of  good  laws. 
That  there  are  exceptions  we  do  not  deny.  As  a 
rule  the  churches  of  a  community  are  its  best  asset. 
This  means  that  most  people  look  upon  religion 
as  something  desirable.  Communities  without 
churches  and  unwilling  to  sustain  them  are  not  at- 
tractive communities  In  which  to  live.  Unbe- 
lievers, however  firmly  fixed  in  their  convictions 
that  the  gospel  has  no  historic  ground  upon  which 
to  rest,  do  not  seem  to  be  eager  to  settle  In  these 
communities  or  to  have  their  children  brought  up 
within  their  limits.  Indirectly,  unconsciously  per- 
haps, they  testify  thus  to  the  value  of  Christianity 
by  establishing  their  homes  among  those  who  look 
upon  the  gospel  as  true,  and  who  try  to  live  In  ac- 
cordance with  its  precepts.    In  communities  which 


THE  CHURCH  OF  TO-DAY         41 

have  been  long  established  there  will  of  course  be 
a  considerable  number  of  people  who,  If  not  out- 
right opposers  of  the  church,  still  are  Indifferent 
to  It.  Let  them  have  credit  for  the  blameless  lives 
which  they  seem  to  be  living,  but  let  them  ask 
themselves  If  they  honestly  have  Investigated  for 
themselves  the  grounds  upon  which  the  gospel 
bases  Its  claims.  If  In  fact  for  what  they  are  them- 
selves, the  Ideals  they  cherish,  the  upright  life  they 
are  leading,  they  are  not  Indebted  to  the  Christian 
religion? 

What  we  ask  Is  that  Christianity  be  so  fairly 
studied  as  to  be  understood.  Let  the  faults  of 
those  who  represent  It  be  fully  exposed.  Let  Its 
failure  to  accomplish  all,  or  even  a  small  part  of 
what  had  been  expected  of  It,  be  admitted.  Give 
due  credit  to  critical  scholarship,  recognize  the 
errors  which  have  been  taught  as  truth  In  the  name 
of  religion,  select  the  worst  speclmer||the  church 
of  any  era  has  to  present,  a  fair  consideration  of 
all  that  the  church  has  been  and  has  sought  to  do 
In  any  given  period  of  time  will  show  that  her  In- 
fluence has  been  good  and  not  bad,  that  she  has 
favored  learning,  benevolence,  pure  living,  kindly 
treatment  of  others.  In  short  has  favored  the  best 
and  most  self-sacrificing  life  known.  This  we  be- 
lieve to  be  true  of  the  church  of  to-day. 

We  must  not  forget  that  Christianity  has  been 
doing  Its  work  for  nearly  two  thousand  years,  that 


42         THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

It  has  effected  changes  In  our  thinking,  In  our 
standards  of  morals,  In  our  sense  of  duty  to  oth- 
ers, of  which  ordinarily  no  account  Is  taken. 

To  the  extent  to  which  people  are  affected  by 
universal  Christian  thought,  or  by  what  Is  often 
called  natural  humanity,  we  are  not  Insensible. 
Modern  society  owes  a  large  debt  to  the  many  who 
give  and  labor  not  as  Christians,  but  as  men  and 
women  who  sincerely  desire  and  seek  the  welfare 
of  others.  Some  of  them,  we  think,  are  not  far 
from  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  We  would  they 
were  in  it,  would  take  the  step  which  would  bring 
them  into  it,  would  study  the  gospel  long  enough 
and  thoroughly  enough  to  see  that  Its  claims  do 
not  Interfere  with  enjoyment  of  the  best  this  life 
affords,  or  with  their  doing  the  best  of  which  they 
are  capable  for  the  uplift  of  the  present  and  future 
generations.  There  is  nothing  good  which  the 
gospel  does^ot  seek  to  give :  the  best  in  educa- 
tion, the  best  In  physical  development,  the  best  In 
character-building,  the  best  in  society,  the  best  of 
which  a  perfectly  developed  man  is  capable.  With 
all  this  and  all  that  it  Implies,  the  gospel  Is  in  full 
sympathy.  It  seeks  to  give  life,  and  that  more 
abundantly.  Life  here  in  this  world  and  not  alone 
in  another.  For  the  gospel,  as  the  apostle  saw, 
has  the  promise  of  the  life  that  now  is  as  well  as 
of  that  which  is  to  come. 


IX.    Judging  the  Gospel 

Is  it  too  much  to  ask  that  the  common  way  of 
judging  the  character  of  the  gospel  be  reversed? 
We  criticize  the  error  which  has  attached  itself  to 
it,  but  do  not  take  the  trouble  to  detach  the  error 
from  the  truth;  we  judge  of  the  influence  of  the 
church  upon  the  world  by  studying  its  influence  in 
its  corrupt  and  least  spiritual  eras  rather  than  in 
its  best  eras.  So  of  its  men.  We  take  its  worst 
specimens,  its  most  corrupt  popes  or  cardinals,  its 
worldly-minded  bishops  and  priests,  and  condemn 
Christianity  because  some  of  its  representatives 
are  what  a  lack  of  Christianity  has  made  them  to 
be.  Of  such  men  as  Paul,  Francis  Assisi,  the  early 
messengers  of  Christ  to  England  and  the  north  of 
Europe,  the  pioneer  missionaries  of  the  late  eigh- 
teenth and  the  early  nineteenth  century,  we  have 
little  to  say.  We  do  not  stop  to  consider  the  fact 
that  in  his  effort  to  heal  the  open  sore  of  the  world, 
David  Livingstone  revealed  Africa  in  its  true  light 
and  in  so  doing  rendered  it  possible  to  sweep  away 
forever  the  last  vestige  of  heathen  darkness  from 
the  minds  of  men  living  in  the  Dark  Continent. 

Have  such  men  as  the  late  William  Booth  made 
no  contribution  to  the  world?  Is  there  another 
man  of  his  time  who  has  contributed  more?  There 

43 


44         THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

have  been  great  men  in  science,  great  explorers, 
great  warriors,  great  statesmen,  but  what  man  In 
the  nineteenth  century  did  more  to  uplift  and  help 
the  lower  strata  of  his  race  than  William  Booth 
In  the  foundation  of  the  Salvation  Army?  He  saw 
human  need  In  Its  worst  forms.  He  saw  vice  In 
that  section  of  society  where  It  Is  most  completely 
at  home,  among  people  who  had  no  other  comfort 
than  what  came  to  them  In  evil  doing.  In  that 
section  of  London  where  he  began  his  ministry, 
those  who  needed  the  help  he  sought  to  give  were 
more  numerous  than  those  who  counted  them- 
selves righteous.  To  them  he  went  with  the 
gospel.  If  he  carried  it  to  them  In  a  way  which 
they  who  received  it  never  had  known,  it  was  yet 
the  gospel  which  wrought  a  change  In  their  lives, 
which  opened  their  eyes  to  a  new  world,  a  world 
of  whose  existence  they  had  not  even  dreamed. 
That  gospel,  he  and  his  followers,  many  of  them 
among  the  lowest  of  the  low,  have  carried  round 
the  world  to  find  that  everywhere  Its  power  with 
men  has  been  the  same.  It  has  freed  them  from 
the  fetters  of  sin.  It  has  made  new  people  of 
them.  It  has  dragged  them  out  of  the  strongholds 
of  vice  and  temptation,  set  them  on  their  feet, 
made  them  heralds  of  Him  who  sought  and  saved 
them. 

The  message  they  have  delivered  has  been  very 
simple.     It  has  been  without  form  or  ornament. 


JUDGING  THE  GOSPEL  45 

It  has  been  a  message  from  man  to  man,  testimony 
alone,  the  testimony  of  experience,  a  man  In  moral 
health  telling  one  who  Is  sick  how  he  was  cured. 
Believe.  That  Is  all.  Believe  Jesus  Christ,  friend, 
brother,  helper,  healer,  unseen  yet  truly  present. 
One  Is  sinking  In  deep  water.  Seize  the  outstretch- 
ed hand  and  be  saved.  Simple  indeed  is  the  first 
step.  Explanations  neither  are  given  nor  sought. 
Make  trial.  That  is  enough.  Observe  the  change 
in  that  man's  life.  See  what  he  is  to-day.  All 
know  what  he  was  not  long  ago.  Look  Into  his 
home.  See  how  comfortable  it  Is.  Ask  his  wife 
and  children  about  him.  How  unlike  all  Is  from 
what  It  was  a  few  months  since.  What  has  brought 
about  the  change?  Acquaintance  with  the  Salva- 
tion Army.  A  lad,  a  lassie  perhaps,  brought  news 
of  an  Invisible  yet  powerful  helper.  The  message 
was  not  understood  at  first.  The  needy  man  was 
persuaded  to  ask  help.  It  came.  How?  Is  there 
need  to  know?  It  came.  And  the  messenger  who 
brought  it  kept  in  constant  touch  with  the  person 
to  whom  it  came,  and  with  tact  and  untiring  pa- 
tience unfolded  more  and  more  of  the  gospel  till  at 
last,  with  clear  vision  the  one  saved  was  ready  to 
go  out  with  his  message  to  others. 

Has  the  gospel  power?  Visit  London.  Is  it  a 
dream?  Visit  London.  Enough  can  be  seen  there 
to  satisfy  any  one  that  some  power  beyond  what 
is  commonly  exerted  by  man  has  made  itself  felt 


46         THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

in  the  lives  of  thousands  of  degraded  men  and 
women. 

Soldiers  in  this  same  Army,  making  use  of  the 
same  kinds  of  weapons,  following  similar  methods 
of  attack,  have  won  similar  victories  in  every 
large  city  into  which  they  have  gone.  Nor  has 
their  advance  been  limited  to  nations  in  which  the 
English  language  is  spoken.  Victories  hardly  less 
marvelous  have  been  won  wherever  they  have 
gone.  They  are  winning  them  now  day  by  day. 
During  these  efforts  to  win  followers  of  Christ, 
men  have  been  shown  how  to  live  in  comfort  here 
in  this  world,  how  to  make  use  of  the  capacities 
with  which  they  have  been  endowed.  These  effects 
cannot  be  explained  as  the  effects  of  personal  mag- 
netism, however  prominent  that  at  times  may  have 
been.  It  is  not  the  influence  of  mind  upon  mind, 
although  that  has  not  been  without  effect.  It  is 
due  to  a  new  nature,  a  nature  which  has  taken  the 
place  of  the  nature  which  was  all  powerful  before. 
Old  things  have  passed  away.  Behold  all  things 
are  become  new.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  wit- 
nesses there  are,  speaking  in  almost  all  the  lang- 
uages of  the  civilized  world,  and  not  a  few  in  the 
heathen  world,  who  ascribe  the  change  in  them  of 
which  they  are  conscious  and  for  which  they  are 
grateful,  to  an  invisible  power  which  has  come  to 
their  aid  and  which  remains  with  them  to  help 
them  as  they  have  need.    Even  the  most  skeptical 


JUDGING  THE  GOSPEL  47 

will  not  deny  that  good  has  been  wrought.  Why 
not  admit  that  for  these  people,  and  such  as  these, 
the  gospel  has  a  message,  and  a  message  which 
they  do  well  to  heed? 

Is  there  no  call  for  others  than  among  those  to 
whom  the  Salvation  Army  usually  ministers  to 
heed  this  message?  Everywhere  there  is  a  middle 
class  who  need  the  gospel.  The  members  of  this 
class  are  not  remarkable  for  learning,  for  ability 
to  appreciate  sharp  distinctions  in  criticism,  fine 
points  in  literature,  arguments  for  or  against  the 
existence  of  God.  They  are  for  the  most  part 
sane  in  their  thought,  distinguished  for  good  judg- 
ment, or  what  is  called  common  sense,  people  who 
know  a  good  thing  when  they  see  it,  and  are  not 
unwilling  to  use  the  means  necessary  to  secure  it. 
Among  the  men  and  women  of  this  class,  the 
changes  which  take  place  in  character  are  often 
very  striking,  are  not  less  remarkable  and  effective 
than  in  those  who  belong  to  the  class  below  them. 
From  this  middle  class  come  the  larger  number  of 
those  who  devote  themselves  to  the  work  of 
spreading  the  knowledge  of  the  gospel  throughout 
the  world.  They  do  not  labor  for  the  conversion 
of  men  alone,  but  for  their  development  as  mem- 
bers of  a  race  to  whose  mental  and  moral  prog- 
ress, so  far  as  we  can  see,  no  limit  has  been  set. 
Hence  their  interest  in  schools,  in  hospitals,  in 
every  form  of  benevolence  that  can  reach  and  aid 


48         THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

mankind.  Hence  gifts  increasingly  large  as  the 
years  go  by  and  the  belief  on  the  part  of  the  giver 
that  they  are  serving  a  Master  who  has  chosen 
them  to  be  his  stewards,  and  who  are  looking  for 
a  steady  and  permanent  betterment  in  the  world 
in  which  we  are  now  living.  True  they  believe  in 
a  world  to  come.  But  to  prepare  themselves  for 
enjoyment  in  it  they  think  they  should  live  and 
act  as  if  this  world  were  the  only  world  in  which 
they  are  to  live. 

On  the  ground  of  this  faith  we  have  our 
churches,  our  Christian  education,  our  mission  ser- 
vice at  home  and  abroad,  our  standards  of  duty, 
our  codes  of  law,  whatever  is  high  and  inspiring 
in  our  civilization.  .  .  .  No  claim  is  put  forth  for 
the  rare  intellectual  ability  of  those  to  whom  we 
owe  these  priceless  gifts.  We  recognize  the  debt 
which  we  owe  them,  and  we  try  to  pay  it  by  pass- 
ing on  the  treasure  which  has  come  to  us  to  an- 
other generation.  Everywhere  we  go  we  have 
examples  of  strangely  complete  and  beautiful  self- 
denying  lives.  And  with  it,  yes  as  part  of  it,  and 
the  most  prominent  part  of  it,  contentment,  a 
peace  and  satisfaction  in  life  which  make  them- 
selves felt  in  every  word  and  act. 

There  is  no  need  to  name  examples.  Memory 
is  full  of  them.  They  are  among  the  choicest  of 
our  friends.  They  are  the  persons  to  whom  we 
go  in  trouble,  on  whom  we  rely  for  counsel,  after 


JUDGING  THE  GOSPEL  49 

whose  conduct  we  fashion,  to  a  considerable  de- 
gree, our  own.  Out  of  this  class  come  not  a  few 
of  our  most  prominent  men  of  wealth,  our  most 
eloquent  and  effective  orators,  our  statesmen,  the 
men  who  fill  the  professions,  our  artists,  authors, 
and  scholars.  If  of  the  very  rich,  the  very  noble, 
the  very  learned,  the  wise  of  this  world,  not  many 
are  called,  some  are  called,  have  responded  to  the 
call,  and  are  bearing  the  message  which  they  have 
heard  to  those  about  them,  to  those  with  whom 
they  associate  daily.  The  changes  observable  in 
them  are  quite  as  real  as  in  those  who  are  not  in 
their  social  rank.  With  every  opportunity  for 
research,  with  leisure  for  study,  with  minds  en- 
larged by  wide  reading,  extensive  travel,  constant 
association  with  members  of  the  most  cultivated 
society,  they  too  cherish  a  sincere  faith  in  one  who 
declared  that  He  came  into  the  world  to  seek 
and  save  the  lost.  The  example  their  Master  has 
left  them  they  do  not  hesitate  to  follow. 

Whatever  some  of  those  who  pass  for  the  clear- 
est thinkers  of  our  time  may  say,  to  whatever  ex- 
tent in  view  of  the  discoveries  and  the  finds  of 
scholarship,  the  mere  letter  of  the  gospel  may  be 
modified,  the  gospel  itself  is  untouched.  Its  mes- 
sage is  the  same  from  age  to  age  and  to  all  alike. 
It  is  a  message  from  a  heavenly  Father  to  chil- 
dren who  for  a  time  are  living  in  this  world  and 
who  have  wandered  far  from  Him.  He  asks  them 


so         THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

to  come  home,  and  as  they  heed  the  voice  and  turn 
their  faces  toward  Him,  He  goes  out  to  meet 
them.  Distinguished  names  there  are,  many  of 
them  of  those  who  in  intellect,  in  discipline  of 
mind,  rank  among  the  first,  whose  faith  in  Christ 
is  that  of  a  little  child.  It  is  useless  to  deny  facts. 
If  there  are  many  who  do  not  believe,  there  are 
multitudes  who  do  believe.  If  there  are  some  who 
doubt  and  criticise  and  reject,  there  are  multi- 
tudes equally  gifted  and  equally  well  disciplined 
who  accept  the  gospel  and  rejoice  in  it.  Not  a 
few  eminent  scientists,  many  who  are  prominent 
in  philosophical  thought,  men  who  have  led  na- 
tions as  their  prime  ministers,  men  who  have  ex- 
hibited the  highest  bravery  in  battle,  have  enrolled 
themselves  among  the  servants  of  Christ.  Men 
born  to  the  enjoyment  of  every  advantage  that 
family  and  wealth  could  furnish  have  willingly  left 
all  to  witness  the  more  effectively  to  the  blessing 
which  the  gospel  brings  to  the  world. 

This  is  something  for  which  fanaticism  cannot 
account.  Nor  can  any  one  deny  that  in  countries 
which  are  called  Christian,  life  is  richer,  property 
safer,  morals  higher,  knowledge  more  eagerly 
sought,  more  highly  prized,  made  more  useful, 
than  in  other  countries;  that  in  these  countries, 
from  the  first  Christian  century  to  the  present,  the 
world  has  been  becoming  better.  .  .  .  Consider 
for  a  moment  what  Christianity  has  brought  to 


JUDGING  THE  GOSPEL  51 

these  countries.  Not  alone  in  change  of  thought, 
in  different  and  purer  standards  of  moral  charac- 
ter, In  juster  and  more  beneficent  laws,  in  institu- 
tions of  benevolence  where  misfortune,  sickness, 
poverty,  suffering  of  every  kind,  is  alleviated,  but 
in  its  effect  upon  literature  and  upon  the  estimates 
men  form  one  of  another. 

Take  out  of  any  generation  since  Christ  came, 
the  effect  the  preaching  of  his  gospel  has  had  upon 
men,  how  great  would  be  the  loss !  Almost  be- 
yond the  power  of  calculation !  Take  its  influence 
away  from  any  community  with  which  we  are  ac- 
quainted, out  of  all  the  books  we  have  read,  or 
are  reading,  out  of  the  lives  of  those  around  us, 
banish  Christianity  from  among  us — What  would 
there  be  left?  Could  we  be  content  to  remain 
among  people  with  no  faith  In  God,  or  In  moral 
obligations,  or  in  anything  beyond  that  which  we 
can  see  and  feel?  Were  we  to  determine  to  live 
with  people  like  these,  would  it  not  be  that  we 
might  bear  witness  to  a  higher  and  richer  life  than 
the  one  they  were  leading? 

What  have  we  to-day  In  our  land  that  we  do  not 
owe  to  the  Christian  religion?  Our  love  of  liberty 
and  our  enjoyment  of  it.  The  Red  Men  who  were 
here  before  us  had  more  freedom  than  we  have 
ever  enjoyed.  Did  this  mean  liberty  or  did  this 
liberty  mean  for  them  what  it  means  for  us? 
What  use  did  they  make  of  it,  apart  from  self- 


52         THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

gratification?  What  contributions  through  it  did 
they  make  to  the  well-being  of  their  tribes?  Of 
what  value  was  this  part  of  the  world  to  the 
rest  of  it  while  in  their  possession?  Their  liberty 
was  the  liberty  of  nature.  Force  in  others  was 
the  only  power  that  could  restrain  it.  For  this 
kind  of  liberty  civilized  men  cherish  no  desire. 
Why  not?  Perhaps  because  it  has  no  other 
recognized  limits  than  those  of  force  and  sel- 
fishness, because  it  has  not  felt  the  leavening  in- 
fluence of  the  message  of  good  will,  of  brotherly 
love,  of  Christian  self-denial.  At  any  rate  on 
all  grades  of  common  life  we  most  readily  admit 
that  the  gospel  has  exercised  a  power  for  good. 
That  in  our  communities  which  makes  life  worth 
living  is  due  to  Christianity.  Why  then  should 
we  not  all  accept  it?  Why  not  the  most  in- 
telligent as  well  as  those  who  are  looked  upon 
as  the  least  intelligent?  Is  intelligence  justified 
in  rejecting  it  because  it  condemns  the  gratifica- 
tion of  those  passions  in  us  which  we  have  in 
common  with  the  brutes?  Because  it  sets  be- 
fore us  standards  of  attainment  which  require  a 
life  time  even  approximately  to  realize,  because 
it  purifies  and  mellows,  and  renders  attractive, 
disagreeable,  well-nigh  ungovernable  characters, 
because  it  stimulates  even  the  best  of  men  to  press 
forward  toward  the  realization  of  ideals  which  the 
word  perfection  only  can  fitly  describe?    Thought- 


JUDGING  THE  GOSPEL  53 

ful  people,  some  of  them,  very  probably  will  say, 
"For  the  ordinary  person  undoubtedly  religon  is 
a  good  thing.  Even  if  its  teachings  do  not  rest 
on  facts,  so  long  as  faith  in  them  produces  good 
results  their  acceptance  should  be  advocated.  But 
for  those  who  think,  who  are  unwilling  to  accept 
any  religious  belief  which  has  in  it  even  the  least 
suspicion  of  untruth,  Christianity  is  impossible. 
For  the  lower  classes  we  approve  it  just  as  we  ap- 
prove of  policemen  for  the  unruly."  But  only  for 
people  who  feel  the  need  of  a  religion,  who  want 
to  have  some  sort  of  assurance  about  the  future, 
or  lean  on  authority,  is  Christianity  desirable.  Few 
people  are  able  to  detect  errors  in  the  biblical 
records,  fewer  still  care  for  them  when  detected, 
but  for  those  who  do  care  it  is  not  possible  to  have 
confidence  in  them. 

This  intellectual  objection  to  religion  is  not 
based  upon  unwillingness  to  be  subject  to  a  severe 
standard  of  morals  or  to  a  demand  so  to  regulate 
life  as  to  make  it  contributory  in  the  highest  degree 
to  the  welfare  of  others,  or  to  make  it  fruitful  to 
the  last  extent  for  one's  self.  Many  who  turn 
away  from  the  Christian  religion  because  they 
have  discovered,  as  they  are  persuaded,  mistakes 
in  some  or  all  of  its  documents,  are  leading  lives 
of  singular  beauty  and  are  saying  to  themselves 
and  to  others  that  the  reward  which  accompanies 
well-doing  here  is  all  the  reward  they  look  for  or 


54         THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

wish.  To  a  future  life,  they  give  no  thought.  For 
it  they  have  no  care.  Should  there  be  a  future  life, 
it  is  a  life  which  concerns  them  as  little  as  that 
which  their  souls  may  have  had  in  the  ages  which 
preceded  its  beginning  here.  They  live  for  the 
day  with  no  expectation  or  care  for  a  to-morrow. 
They  shut  out  of  their  lives  whatever  comfort  or 
help  might  be  brought  into  them  by  a  belief  in  the 
actual  presence  of  God  in  the  world. 

To  reject  Christianity  for  the  reason  that  its 
books  were  not  written,  as  scholarship  now  as- 
serts, by  men  as  the  amanuenses  of  Deity,  that 
they  contain  statements  which  are  inconsistent  with 
facts  which  science  and  history  carefully  studied, 
the  progress  of  thought  and  morals  contradict  and 
condemn,  is  no  sufficient  reason  for  overlooking 
the  good  which  they  contain.  Read  in  the  light  of 
human  experience  it  will  be  discovered  that  these 
books  are  on  a  level  with  the  most  advanced 
thought  of  the  time  of  their  composition.  Read  as 
marking  the  progress  of  religious  men  from  low 
and  primitive  ideas  of  religion,  up  to  the  time  of 
Christ,  the  books  are  of  great  value.  They  en- 
courage us  to  believe  that  even  Christian  ideas 
oftentimes  may  reveal  themselves  more  clearly 
bye  and  bye  than  now.  The  Bible  is  a  book  of 
progress.  Its  later  standards  of  duty  condemn 
many  that  were  current  in  early  times.  The  Bible  is 
to  be  judged  by  its  aims,  by  its  later  standards,  not 


JUDGING  THE  GOSPEL  55 

by  those  which  were  held  in  the  twilight  of  religi- 
ous history.  It  is  to  be  judged  by  what  its  heroes 
sought  to  be  and  do  rather  than  by  what  they 
actually  were  as  compared  with  men  of  character 
living  to-day. 

If  we  are  not  far  better  than  the  best  Old  Testa- 
ment saint  or  prophet,  it  is  our  fault.  We  have 
no  right  to  live  below  the  requirements  of  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  or  to  imitate  the  example 
of  any  other  man  who  ever  has  lived,  save  that  of 
Christ.  Can  a  really  thoughtful  person,  one  who 
means  to  be  consistent  in  his  thinking,  logical  in 
his  conduct,  find  any  intellectual  reason  for  not 
being  a  follower  of  the  Lord  Jesus?  No  matter 
what  he  thinks  about  his  person,  his  pre-existence, 
the  two  natures,  or  one  nature,  the  virgin  birth  or 
a  natural  birth,  relation  to  God  or  to  men,  he 
lived  such  a  life  on  earth  as  no  one  before  him  had 
lived,  taught  principles,  which,  where  followed, 
produce  the  purest  and  noblest  characters  of  which 
we  have  any  knowledge.  ...  Is  not  a  religion 
which  connects  itself  with  such  a  person,  worthy 
the  most  conscientious  examination,  and  if  one  is 
really  anxious  to  obtain  for  himself  and  others  the 
best  this  life  contains,  should  not  an  effort  be  made 
to  meet  the  conditions  upon  which  its  promises  and 
its  results  depend? 

For  most  people  who  reject  the  Christian  re- 
ligion,  an  intellectual  difficulty  has  little  weight. 


56         THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

They  do  not  want  to  submit  themselves  to  the 
standards  of  Christianity.  They  are  unwiUing  to 
deny  themselves  the  pleasures  they  desire.  They 
want  to  live  and  act  as  if  whatever  they  do,  or 
think,  or  wish  is  right;  as  if  living  for  others,  for 
the  good  of  the  whole,  for  the  building  up  of  a 
moral  system  or  an  economic  system  of  righteous- 
ness which  shall  be  operative  in  the  future,  were  no 
concern  of  theirs.  Their  life  is  a  life  of  complete 
religious  indifference.  Of  the  contents  of  the 
biblical  books  they  have  neither  knowledge  nor 
care.  Even  the  gospels  remain  unread.  The  pres- 
ent alone  interests  them.  For  what  others  have 
done,  or  for  what  others  may  do,  they  have  no 
care.  The  multitudes  are  indifferent,  thoughtless- 
ly indifferent.  They  are  hostile  to  religious  re- 
straints. Reason  cannot  reach  them.  They  care 
only  for  the  spectacular,  the  unusual,  the  horrible, 
and  for  this  for  no  long  time,  l^hey  do  not  think. 
We  must  not  overlook  the  needs  of  persons  like 
these. 

Is  it  asked  what  do  we  mean  by  religion,  more 
especially  by  the  religion  of  Christ  as  presented  in 
the  gospels  and  in  the  letters  of  Paul?  It  is  the 
recognition  on  the  part  of  man  of  his  relation  to 
his  Creator.  It  is  a  willing,  grateful,  trustful, 
loving  recognition  of  God.  It  is  a  recognition  of 
the  place  each  of  us  occupies  in  the  world,  the 
cherishing  of  a  purpose  to  fill  that  place  to  the  best 


JUDGING  THE  GOSPEL  57 

of  our  ability.  We  are  permitted  to  scan  with 
utmost  care  the  history  of  the  human  race,  of  that 
portion  of  the  universe  and  its  relation  to  every 
other  part  of  it  where  we  find  ourselves,  to  follow 
through  countless  ages  the  gradual  preparation  of 
our  world  for  the  support  of  life,  and  its  slow 
development  from  that  period  on,  till  man  came 
anci  grew  to  be  conscious  of  duty  and  of  a  power 
to  think  of  other  worlds  than  this,  of  other  beings 
than  those  like  himself,  of  causes  and  effects,  and 
of  the  cause  of  what  we  ourselves  are,  and  to  ask 
why  we  are  here,  from  whom  we  have  come,  and 
to  whom  we  are  to  return. 

These  questions  and  others  like  them,  religion 
and  more  especially  the  religion  of  Christ  an- 
swers. ...  It  tells  us  of  God,  of  His  love  for  us, 
of  our  need  of  Him,  of  the  revelation  He  has 
made  to  us  of  His  nature  and  His  wishes  for  us 
in  Plis  Son.  We  are  asked  to  hear  this  Son  as  He 
speaks  to  us,  to  weigh  His  words,  to  heed  His 
warnings,  to  accept  His  promises,  to  follow  His 
guidance.  We  are  not  asked  to  place  confidence  in 
a  Book,  to  cherish  any  particular  opinion  as  to  the 
way  into  which  it  came  into  being,  to  hold  any 
special  theory  as  to  the  person  of  Christ,  any  be- 
lief in  a  particular  church  or  in  any  particular  body 
of  men,  only  to  believe  in  Christ,  to  believe  that 
He  came  from  His  Father  and  our  Father,  and 
came  with  words  of  good  will. 


58         THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

From  what  has  been  said,  It  is  clear  that  the 
only  satisfactory  way  to  prove  the  truth  of  the 
gospel  is  to  listen  to  it  and  then  make  personal 
test  of  its  claims.  In  order  to  do  this,  no  great 
amount  of  learning  is  necessary.  A  very  ignorant 
person  may  be  brought  to  Christ,  and  recognizing 
Him  may  put  faith  in  Him,  live  as  He  directs, 
and  enjoy  the  peace  He  promises.  For  most  of 
us  Christianity  is  nothing  more  than  a  personal 
relation  w^ith  Christ.  We  read  His  words,  we  re- 
call the  conditions  in  which  He  lived,  we  dwell 
upon  His  deeds  of  mercy,  upon  the  help  He  gave 
to  those  who  sought  Him,  we  think  of  Him  as  liv- 
ing still,  we  do  not  know  where,  we  do  not  try  to 
locate  Him,  only  to  believe  Him  and  make  sure 
in  our  experience  that  He  is  with  us  and  helping 
us  every  day.  We  have  only  to  look  around  us 
to  find  examples  of  those  who  have  cast  their  care 
upon  Him,  and  (in  consequence)  are  living  happy, 
useful  lives,  whose  peace  of  mind  is  not  disturbed 
by  burdens  of  sickness  and  poverty  and  failure  of 
their  plans,  who  feel  and  act  as  if  they  knew 
that  all  things  are  working  together  for  their 
good. 

Why  is  not  a  practical  proof  like  this  as  good 
as  any  that  can  be  given?  Why  are  not  the  evi- 
dences which  are  brought  before  us  in  the  lives 
of  those  reached  by  the  Salvation  Army,  by  many 
of    our    evangelists,    by   missionaries    in    foreign 


JUDGING  THE  GOSPEL  59 

lands,  as  satisfactory  as  any  that  rest  on  theory  or 
on  conclusions  which  ought  to  follow  logically 
from  assumed  premises?  Are  not  many  of  that 
very  Intelligent  class  who  are  turning  away  from 
the  gospel,  failing  to  see  what  the  gospel  Is,  and 
what  it  requires?  Are  they  not  setting  up  stand- 
ards of  thought  in  reference  to  it,  to  which  it 
makes  no  claims?  Did  not  Christianity  exist  be- 
fore any  account  of  it  was  written?  Was  there 
not  a  time  when  Christ  and  His  disciples  made  up 
the  entire  Christian  church?  Was  their  associat- 
ing together  called  a  church?  Was  not  the  re- 
lationship between  Master  and  disciple  then  as 
real  and  close  as  ever  existed  between  any  be- 
liever and  his  Lord. 

The  accounts  of  the  life  in  Palestine,  full  of 
interest  and  important  as  they  are,  are  accounts 
which  have  a  human  origin,  even  if  of  divine  sug- 
gestion. They  are  to  be  treated  as  we  treat  other 
accounts  written  by  men,  save  that  they  relate  to 
more  Important  matters  and  are  of  deeper  concern 
to  us.  Suppose  It  were  true  that  In  certain  minor 
points,  the  so-called  gospels  do  not  exactly  agree, 
that  the  epistles  of  Paul  are  rather  more  philo- 
sophical than  we  wish  they  were,  rather  more  dif- 
ficult to  explain  than  we  could  desire?  Does  this 
render  untrue  the  evidence  of  the  good  that  comes 
to  us  from  the  association  of  the  apostles  with  the 
Saviour,  or  that  comes  to  us  in  the  experience  of 


6o         THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

countless  millions  who  since  their  time  have  found 
comfort  and  peace  through  their  faith  in  Christ? 
Surely  what  has  proved  itself  to  be  of  value  in  this 
life  for  multitudes  of  men  of  all  conditions  and  of 
all  races,  is  not  unworthy  the  attention  of  gifted 
men  now  living.  Their  faith  is  not  to  be  set  aside 
as  a  fancy,  the  hopes  they  cherished  as  nothing 
better  than  a  dream. 

If  the  facts  of  the  change  produced  by  the  ac- 
ceptance of  the  gospel  cannot  be  denied,  if  the 
change  wrought  in  character  is  always  for  the 
better,  if  we  see  pure  characters  emerge  from 
among  the  most  vicious,  if  what  is  low  and  de- 
graded is  rejected  because  of  love  for  Christ  and 
the  desire  to  serve  Him,  if,  instead  of  seeking  to 
injure  others,  there  is  a  desire  to  help  them,  reason 
demands  that  the  causes  of  these  changes  be 
sought  for  and  when  found  be  carefully  consider- 
ed. This  is  what  the  most  thoughtful  people  in 
our  churches  are  eager  that  the  many  outside 
them  should  do.  .  .  .  They  are  confident  that  if 
this  were  done,  faithfully  and  conscientiously, 
nearly  all  of  those  who  are  now  taking  no  part 
with  them  in  the  work  of  extending  the  gospel, 
would  join  in  their  efforts  and  by  their  suggestions 
and  their  personal  assistance  add  to  its  power  and 
hasten  the  coming  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 


X.    Our  Place  is  the  One  We  Occupy 

Our  place  in  the  world.  What  Is  it?  Not  a 
place  which  has  come  to  us  by  chance.  The  uni- 
verse is  full  of  thought.  All  that  is  material  in 
it  is  under  the  control  of  law.  Many  of  these 
laws  have  been  discovered.  Others  are  coming 
to  light  as  research  continues.  Some  that  had 
been  taken  to  be  final  and  universal  are  superseded 
or  modified,  and  others  of  broader  application 
put  into  their  place.  We  find,  indeed,  that  we 
can  go  nowhere  in  the  universe  with  our  investiga- 
tions, without  finding  indications  of  thought.  And 
this  thought  as  its  creations  show  is  not  so  unlike 
our  thought  as  to  render  our  relation  to  its  author 
unnatural  or  impossible.  If  He  by  whom  it  is 
exercised  is  not  like  ourselves,  we  are  like  Him, 
at  least  in  those  qualities  which  constitute  per- 
sonality, in  reason,  character  and  purpose.  If 
there  are  no  words  which  we  can  employ  to  de- 
scribe Him,  yet  we  can  see  that  He  is,  and  ob- 
servation and  experience  teach  us  that  He  is  a 
rewarder  of  those  who  diligently  seek  Him. 

Our  place  in  the  universe,  then,  is  the  place  we 
are  now  occupying.  Our  work  in  it  is  to  do  the 
best  that  can  be  done  for  ourselves  and  for  others, 
to  make  the  best  possible  use  of  our  inheritance 

6t 


62         THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

and  pass  It  on  to  those  who  come  after  us.  In 
in  some  way  we  are  very  near  to  a  Supreme  Be- 
ing, that  He  Is  speaking  to  us  through  conscience, 
and  through  our  longing  for  a  larger  and  better 
life  than  we  now  lead.  We  discover  that  it  is 
the  great  things  in  life  that  interest  us  most,  that 
as  our  outlook  widens,  we  feel  more  keenly  our 
relation  to  the  invisible  and  the  more  fully  con- 
vinced that  our  destiny  Is  not  realized  In  this 
world  or  In  the  few  years  that  make  up  our  stay 
in  it.  Christ  seeks  to  establish  such  relations  be- 
tween ourselves  and  Him  whom  He  calls  His 
Father,  that  we  also  shall  call  Him  Father,  and 
at  all  times  be  conscious  of  His  care  and  love. 


XL    Agnostics  and   Materialists 

Are  we  agnos-tlcs?  Are  we  willing  to  take 
refuge  in  ignorance?  There  have  been  many  the- 
ories of  man  and  of  the  world,  and  of  thbir  rela- 
tion to  each  other.  There  are  those  who  look 
upon  the  world  as  a  machine,  wonderfully  com- 
plex, yet  running  accurately  because  constructed 
according  to  a  law  which  perfectly  serves  its  needs. 
What  mind  is  behind  this  law,  or  who  is  responsi- 
ble for  its  execution;  we  are  not  told.  We  only 
know  that  this  law  is  universal  in  its  action,  and> 
so  far  as  we  can  see,  is  to  be  permanent  in  its  ap- 
plication. But  so  far  as  knowing  what,  or  whence, 
or  why,  this  law  is,  we  confess  we  do  not  know. 
We  are  content  to  look  upon  ourselves  as  agnos- 
tics, as  beings  who  have  come  from  the  earth  it- 
self, in  accordance  with  a  well-defined  law  which 
at  present  we  do  not  understand,  but  which  patient 
study  may  yet  reveal. 

But  the  operation  of  law  in  the  world,  me- 
chanical though  it  be,  is  suggestive  of  life.  The 
world  is  not  a  dead  world.  Though  forms  of  life 
change  and  pass  away,  life  itself  does  not  necessar- 
ily perish.  That  of  which  life  made  use  remains 
with  us.  The  organic  feeds  upon  the  inorganic, 
each  higher  form  of  life  in  the  organic  world  upon 

63 


64         THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

that  which  is  below  It.  Man  who  seems  to  be  the 
climax  of  development  feeds  upon  all  that  Is  below 
or  around  him.  Yet  for  all  this  no  higher  cause  is 
sought  by  many  than  the  mechanical.  If  this  does 
not  quite  satisfy  or  answer  our  questions  about 
man  and  his  exact  relation  to  this  world  or  to  the 
universe,  there  are  those  who  shake  their  heads 
and  say,  **We  do  not  know,  We  never  can  know, 
We  must  be  content  to  remain  what  we  are,  agnos- 
tics." 

Not  all  believers  In  this  mechanical  theory  of 
the  world,  however,  are  willing  to  be  known  as 
agnostics.  Some  go  farther  than  this.  They  are 
confident  that  this  world  and  everything  pertaining 
to  It  Is  material  and  perishable,  that  man  Is  ma- 
terial also,  and  will  live  his  life  here  and  cease  to 
be.  This  life  Is  all.  Generations  come  and  go. 
Although  later  generations  owe  something  to 
those  which  have  preceded  the  one  to  which  they 
belong,  even  if  there  be  no  end  to  this  movement, 
there  is  no  other  immortality  than  that  which  Is 
cherished  in  memory.  Our  future  life  is  In  what 
the  few  who  have  known  us,  or  heard  of  us,  may 
think  of  us.  With  such  theories  no  real  explana- 
tion of  what  man  Is  can  be  given.  Nor  Is  any 
explanation  necessary.  We  are  as  a  flower  of  the 
field.    The  wind  passeth  over  it,  and  it  is  gone. 

But  notwithstanding  our  difficulties  and  the  ease 
with  which  we  drift  Into  agnosticism  or  strive  to 


AGNOSTICS  AND  MATERIALISTS    65 

content  ourselves  with  a  mechanical  and  material 
philosophy  of  the  world  and  of  life,  we  are  not 
satisfied.  The  question,  "What  is  man?"  con- 
stantly rises  up  and  demands  an  answer.  We  con- 
tinue to  ask.  What  is  our  relation  to  this  world? 
Why  is  life  here  so  brief?  Is  there  nothing  more 
for  us  than  what  comes  to  us  between  the  cradle 
and  the  grave?  Are  we  not  more  than  beasts  of 
the  field,  or  the  fowls  of  the  air?  Does  our  sense 
of  duty,  our  feeling  that  there  is  in  us  something 
besides  matter,  mean  nothing?  Is  there  no  such 
thing  as  spirit  in  distinction  from  matter?  Has 
all  the  development  which  has  taken  place  in  the 
world,  which  is  now  our  home,  been  without  a  pur- 
pose, without  any  suggestion  or  direction  from  a 
creative  mind?  It  cannot  be.  We  fall  back,  there- 
fore, on  the  thought  and  the  belief  in  the  existence 
of  an  intelligent,  powerful,  first  cause,  personal 
because  possessing  intelligence  and  will  (not  neces- 
sarily having  form  and  location),  but  capable  of 
thought,  able  to  bring  the  universe  into  being,  and 
put  it  under  law,  even  if  we  cannot  discover  for 
what  purpose  that  law  exists. 

We  believe  there  is  a  purpose.  What  that 
purpose  is,  science  does  not  inform  us:  history 
does  not  inform  us :  philosophy  gives  us  no  certain 
knowledge.  Our  own  conjectures  we  do  not  like 
to  trust.  Where,  then,  shall  we  go  to  ascertain? 
Where  but  to  the  gospel,  led  thither  by  that  re- 


.66        THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

ligious  sense  with  which  every  one  who  comes 
into  the  world  is  endowed.  The  gospel  gives  a 
satisfactory  answer,  and  to  a  philosophical  mind 
only  when  it  reduces  the  gospel  to  its  lowest  terms 
as  a  message  which  coming  through  Ghrist  estab- 
lishes a  close  and  loving  relation  between  the 
Father  and.  His  child. 

Is  it  asking  too  much  of  men  whom  we  honor, 
whose  intellectual  ability  we  recognize,  with  whose 
moral  Hves  we  find  no  fault,  who  seem  to  be  in 
,harmQny  with  that  moral  order  which  we  believe 
governs  the  world,  but  who  appear  to  us  to  be 
depriving  themselves  of,  the  chiefest  privilege  in 
living,  consciousness  of  the  presence  of  God,  that 
they  test  the  power  of  the  gospel  for  themselves 
and  in  their  daily  lives?  They  that  do  the  will  of 
God,  we  are  told,  shall  know  of  the  doctrine.  We 
discover  truth  by  experimenting  with  it,  by  making 
trial  of  it  in  our  own  experience.  Why  not  do  the 
same  with  the  gospel  of  Christ?  We  are  living  in 
times  which  test  manhood.  Even  so-called  Chris- 
tian nations  accept  principles  and  approve  conduct 
which  savages  might  condemn.  We  are  asked  to 
sacrifice!  that  which  we  deem  best  and  most  preci- 
ous. Our  young  men  and  our  young  women  are 
serving  their  country  on  battle  fields,  as  soldiers 
and  as  nurses.  Our  homes  are  full  of  sorrow,  for 
youth  has  been  taken  and  the  hopes  which  con- 
fidently  rested   on   it   have   been   dashed   to   the 


AGNOSTICS  AND  MATERIALISTS    67 

ground.  The  nation  is  in  peril.  All  that  is  noblest 
and  most  desirable  in  civilization  is  threatened 
with  destruction.  Wisdom,  courage,  endurance, 
confidence,  are  needed  by  us  all.  Where  shall  we 
find  these  great  qualities  if  not  by  recognizing  our 
relation  to  God  and  receiving  from  Him  the 
strength  and  comfort  which  faith  in  Him  and  His 
government  of  world  can  give?  We  need  God. 
Why  not  seek  to  find  Him  and  in  a  way  which 
many  witnesses  tell  us  does  not  fail? 


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